Scene Trackers for Writers

I like to straighten my office, purge, dust and organize before undertaking a new project. The ritual involves letting go of what I have been doing and prepare for what’s coming. This time, granted, I’ve gone overboard with the purging. Several trips to the Goodwill drop-off center and an overflowing recycling bin two weeks running attest to my single-minded pursuit. I’m well aware of what I’m avoiding. I’ll get there. In the meantime, while clearing out the old to make room for the new, I stumbled across these old scene trackers for writers. I created them years ago for plot workshops I led. Now they’re wrinkled and faded. Before tossing them in the bin with piles of other papers, I thought I’d snap pictures and share them. I hope you find the scene trackers for writers helpful with your writing.

I started teaching plot at the overall story level with the help of a Plot Planner. Quickly I found lots of writers were confused about plot at the scene level so I came up with the Scene Tracker for Writers. Over the years, I’ve tracked the 7 essential elements of plot in scenes from all sorts of novels with the help of a scene tracker.

A step-by-step guide how to create a Plot Planner and Scene Tracker for your in individul story and with an added bonus — the publisher, Writer’s Digest Books, has included a webpage full of examples in: Writing Blockubster Plots: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Plot, Structure, and Scene

Classic Novel Examples

The first few scenes from the beginning of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

(next, the Thematic Details column for To Kill a Mockingbird on the scene tracker is highlighted)

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Find more adult novel examples on the Scene Tracker board on Pinterest

Middle-Grade Novels

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (with a focus on Thematic Significance Details)

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Tracker by Gary Paulsen (key turning points only)

Find more adult, young adult, and middle grade novel and picture book examples on the Scene Tracker board on Pinterest.

I make copies of the Scene Tracker template and fill them in as I imagine and write scenes and then again as I revise and rewrite. (Buy yours here)